Want to role play, but don't have the money? Or D&D and World of Warcraft are just not your thing? Here's how to write your own role playing (paper and pencil) game rules. Anyway, if you long to role-play, then use this to write your own game.

Brainstorm some ideas on how the basic game will be played, when you have to roll (and if they have to roll at all), how the players interact with the game world, etc.

2

Write an outline for the game, including any important ideas you have thought of.

3

Figure out the rights of the game master(the person who's in charge of the non-character-players (NPCs) and the events that happen in the game),if they decide everything, or just the plot and NPC placement.

4

Get a ten-sided, a six-sided, a twenty-sided, an eight-sided, a four-sided, and a twelve-sided die to roll the outcome of battles & other tests of the skill of the character. You may also add one more six-sided, or another ten-sided, which is recommended, but you may keep that much, or add more of another combination of dice.

5

Write down all of the rules you have come up with so far so you won't forget them later.

6

Write down how you think the players should create the character, or avatar, that they will use in the game. But, naturally, the players might forget their character's statistics, so you have to design a "character sheet" for the players to write their character statistics on(strength, charisma, speed, etc.).

7

Decide how the players should calculate their character's stats so that no one cheats without breaking the rules by making all their stats high where they want them to be high, and low where they want them to be low.

8

Write down how the players create their characters.

9

Brainstorm on how a battle starts, how it is fought, and how it ends.

10

Write down everything that you have come up with and keep it all in one spot so you can flip through it at will.

11

Test out your game by playing it with some friends that have no idea what game it is and what it's all about if you think it's ready. If you don't think it's ready yet, play it against yourself and see if there are any problems. If all is fine, THEN test it with some of your friends.

12

Once you think it's near-perfect, try it at school. If people like it, congrats! If some people DO, but others don't, then stick to the people who DO.

13

Print(or write) a lot of rule books for your game, and you can give them to people so they can play it themselves, and you don't have to be there to be the referee all the time!

The amount of dice you use is just a suggestion; you don't even need dice if you want the game master to have more power.

Buy a three ring binder and print rules on notebook paper (already hole-punched) that way, it fits right for your printer into the binder. Later on you can publish your works on the internet, there are even a few self publishers that publish your stuff automatically, for free, then you can buy copies of your book.

If you don't want the players to use character sheets to write their character's stats on, keep in mind that they need some way to write their character's statistics.

When the players have to calculate their character's statistics, it's suggested to do a dice roll.

Please note that if your game is not popular enough, don't go through with the last step. It's tempting, but it will just be a waste of time if nobody likes your game.